A Cincinnati startup is opening its doors with hopes of becoming the resident full-service 3-D printing company in the Queen City.

Virtual Print Labs has 13 3-D printers that operate across four different 3-D printing technologies. Its machines can print in plastics and resins and make rare and out-of-print replacement parts for old machines, prototypes for engineers, small orders for parts or anything else that doesn’t necessitate mass manufacturing.

What sets Virtual Print Labs apart from other 3-D printing bureaus is that it also offers customers remote access through software it has developed.

“From there we got into the software that allows you to log into our server and access our printers on pretty much a self-service basis,” co-founder John Helmsderfer told me. “It’s a 24/7 world these days, so if you’re an independent design engineer or students working on a project and you finish at 8 p.m., you can look at what printers are available and place your job and know when it will be complete.”

In a traditional shop, people bring in designs or upload them and work with a print shop’s staff to determine when to start it, which printers are available and when it will be done, meaning business can only be conducted while a live person is in the shop.

Virtual Print Labs moved into the Hamilton County Business Center in October 2013 and opened for business in January. Helmsderfer said it’s unusual for Cincinnati to not have a resident full-service print shop.

“It’s atypical that a city the size of Cincinnati does not have a resident full-service 3-D printing bureau,” he said. “Cleveland/Akron has two or three, there’s one in Columbus.”

Another 3-D printing shop called Morris Technologies was located in Cincinnati and specialized in printing in metal. It printed parts for GE Aviation’s jet engines and was acquired by that company in 2012.

Helmsderfer got into 3-D printing in the mid-90s. While he’s been involved for almost two decades, the practice only gained prominence in the last year.

“Some people say it’s like the light switch was flipped on,” he said. “We saw a void locally, but in our own experience we saw in the industry a compound annual growth rate of 25 percent. We felt there’s enough demand for 3-D printing to make a business of this.”

The next step for Virtual Print Labs is to create a marketplace for people who want to make custom items and crafts, like Etsy for 3-D printers.

“We want to establish ourselves in the local market and develop the web service to allow automated use,” Helmsderfer said. “We think that’s the most unique piece of our offering, the ability to rent the printer remotely.”